so the pentagon's announcement was not only welcomed, but long overdue, and more importantly, it also shatters what has been a nearly impenetrable brass ceiling. the military is most likely to be populated be by officers with combat experience and that meant before now, they were most likely populated by men, and now the contributions of women in combat will be both recognize and rewarded with equal access to the leadership opportunities in the armed forces, but even as we recognize the historic weight of this moment for the women in the military, we also cannot ignore the resonance for our larger democracy. because whatever your opinion of the u.s. military, there is no denying that offering up one's life in service to the country has always been the very embodiment of american citizenship. and in particular for the country's most marginalized people, military service has historically been the basis for the strongest claim to their full u.s. citizenship rights. take for example the civil war when men fled behind so-called enemy lines to the north, they inserted their humanity with th